Waimea road crews
race time

With a Thursday target date for re-opening, repairs continued today on the washed-out temporary Waimea Bay bypass road.

Workers dammed the Waimea river and placed three 36-inch drainage pipes --not two as washed out earlier -- in the gap under the temporary road to allow river water to flow to the ocean.

Work was scheduled to go on throughout the night. The actual laying of the road surface made of fabric, web material and crushed coral was to begin today. Crews are set to work around the clock until repairs on the Menehune Connector road are complete. The state hopes the road can open Thursday, weather permitting.

Two-way city bus service was expected to run until midnight tonight on the old Kamehameha Highway through the vicinity of the March 6 rock fall. The contractor removing rocks from the cliffs above the highway changed the work schedule to allow the bus service to continue.

Plans and specifications for a new alignment of Kamehameha Highway to avoid rock-fall danger are complete and were to go to bid today for construction of the new road. Bids are expected to be opened at 2 p.m. Monday with an immediate notice to proceed to the selected contractor.

The new quarter-mile stretch of Kamehameha Highway through the rock-fall area is expected to be finished by June 30. The temporary road that was breached Friday by flood waters from heavy rains originally opened March 18.